1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tailoring the configuration and programs of general purpose computers and other electronic devices for special applications and to tracking these computers and electronic devices as an asset through its useful life.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art to construct general purpose hardware computers and then tailor them for special applications by loading an operating system and other control programs into each computer that tailors each computer for an application such as text processing, graphic arts, scientific calculation, financial accounting, teller work station, bank officer work station, point of sale, process control, internet or other database access communication as well as other applications too numerous to mention.
In addition, each computer must be configured with characteristics unique to the operator or workstation to which the computer will be assigned. Examples are the users name, network configuration parameters, and the identity of the programs that will be needed in the workstation of each computer. In each case, the computer must be powered up and the configuration choices entered by the keyboard or by a removable media prepared in advance, and programs must be loaded into the computer from removable media such as a diskette or a CDROM or from a communication line. U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,501 shows an example of the steps that need to be accomplished in the prior art to configure a workstation.
Often this configuration is left for the user to accomplish when the computer is unpacked. The user is then faced with the task of configuring the computer operating system and installing the programs. This can be an inconvenient and daunting task for a person who is not familiar with the specific computer and who has little experience in deciphering program installation instructions. Invariably the user fails to follow the instructions in some particular and requires assistance from a telephone support center or calls for repair after assuming that the new computer has a fault or the programs have a bug.
If experienced personnel are employed for this task, significant cost and time is expended as they travel from workstation to workstation configuring each computer and installing the appropriate programs. This scenario is costly in support personnel time and customer satisfaction suffers.
In addition, when the customer is a company or other organization, there is the need to record the computer as a capital asset and to track the location of the computer throughout its useful life. Labels, tags and the computer serial number have been used for this purpose. Labels and tags may be removed and internally stored serial numbers again require the computer to be powered up for inventory data gathering.
These problems of user inconvenience, delay in installation, cost and customer dissatisfaction are reduced substantially by this invention which has the advantage that information needed to configure a computer for implementing a workstation is loaded onto the memory of a fully packaged general purpose computer or other electronic device as it is being received at a receiving dock from a warehouse or queue after final test without unpacking and applying power to the device.
It is a further advantage of the invention that information needed to restore the workstation computer for implementing the workstation was stored onto the RFID tag memory it was being received at a receiving dock continues to be available for identifying the software image profile and can be accessed by a LAN server to restore or to update software that has been compromised at the workstation without the need to manually reload the programs.
It is a still further advantage of the invention that the customer can gather inventory data directly from the memory of the computer without having to turn the computer on and enter a password to access computer memory.
These and other advantages are obtained by this invention which stores serial number, program image profile and user information in a dual ported electronic non-volatile memory identification tag that has a wireless memory interface for radio frequency access without the need for AC power and a standard parallel or serial interface to the computer""s bus for normal access while the computer is running under power. The dual ported non-volatile identification tag wireless radio frequency (RF) interface derives its own power from an RF signal that transmits digital program profile and configuration information to the identification tag as the computer is in transit in it""s shipping carton on a conveyor for example.